


Tremble if You Must

by SonjaJade



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Arson, Attempted Murder, Gen, Murder, racial violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-15
Updated: 2016-10-15
Packaged: 2018-08-22 11:41:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8284546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SonjaJade/pseuds/SonjaJade
Summary: Chris takes the next train to Roy’s hometown, and it’s none too pleasant of a visit.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Eye of the storm

Chris had known for weeks that something bad was going to happen.  She’d told her brother to grab Li-Ling and little Roy and head north, that the violence that was already making itself known was going to get out of hand quickly once that snake of a racist man took office as mayor in Trimbleton.  
  
And just as she’d predicted, gangs of ‘Ivory Preservationists’ started terrorizing the whole town.  People were surrounded and beaten for being of mixed race, for being sympathetic to anyone not of fair skin, for being married to a foreigner and having children by them, like her brother Yancy.  Those Ivory bitches cornered Li-Ling on the street, tried to wrench Roy from her hands when a policeman happened to come around the corner at just the right time.  Yancy had been mugged on the way home from work and nearly beaten to death.  Roy had to be pulled out of school because it wasn’t safe there anymore.  
  
Her last conversation with Yancy had been mostly her pleading with him to come stay at her place, just until he could get a job and get on his feet.  He refused, saying it would make their parents roll in their graves if they knew their only grandchild was living in a brothel.  She’d countered with a stinging reply that at least the child would be _living_ , and Yancy told her that in a couple more weeks, everything would be fine, that the police were rounding the gangsters up in accordance with their laws, ignoring the mayor’s lax attitude toward the crimes.  
  
That phone call was four days ago.  Last night, she got a call from the Trimbleton coroner, saying her brother and sister-in-law had been murdered.  Roy was at the hospital being treated for a severe concussion and smoke inhalation.  The Ivory bastards had bludgeoned Yancy and Li-Ling to death, merely whacked Roy hard enough to shut up his cries, and then set the house on fire.  Roy was lucky to have gotten out of it alive.  Chris went immediately to the hospital to be with her nephew.  
  
When she arrived, it was still dark.  She promised the nurses she wouldn’t wake Roy up, and they allowed her into his room.  A low lamp lit his face.  There were scratches on his neck, and a nasty blue and purple knot on his forehead.  Roy was a beautiful child, the narrowed eyes of his Xingese heritage the first thing one noticed.  He looked like he was sleeping peacefully, blissfully unaware that his world had just went up in flames like the house he was born in.  
  
The room was quiet.  The steady, soft ticking of a clock on the wall was the only sound besides Roy’s gentle breathing.  He turned in his sleep toward the window and she saw bruises in the shape of a hand around his bicep.  In spite of herself, tears came from her painted eyes.  Someone had hurt a six year old boy because of who his parents were, because two people of different heritage had fallen in love.  It made her chest hurt.  
  
In the morning, after he’d eaten and after she knew it was going to stay down, she was going to tell him what happened.  She was going to tell a little boy that his mother and father were dead, that they would be leaving after the funeral to go to New Optain to live.  She was going to be his mother now, even though they had only met each other twice- once when he was born and once when his father turned thirty (Roy had only been two then).  
  
But right now, this silent early morning would be a welcome calm.  Roy had endured so much hatred in his short life so far.  Chris was going to make sure she did everything she could to keep him from suffering any more.  She hoped these long quiet minutes stretched out.  Chris wasn’t looking forward to picking out two coffins and two burial plots and trying to figure out how to have a service in such a violent town.  And then there was the matter of clearing and selling the property the house sat on, filing for legal custody of Roy, bringing him home and getting him enrolled in school again- it was going to be culture shock for both of them.  And so many things to do…  
  
However, this nearly silent stretch of time, she wanted to simply burn Roy’s features into her brain, to turn on her maternal instincts to only this child…  She would take this break in the shit storm to bond with her nephew, to let him know he was loved and not alone.  She reached out with a trembling hand and gently combed through his hair once, twice.  
  
He sighed contentedly in his sleep and that was all it took.  She was absolutely smitten with him and knew she could take on the daunting tasks that lie ahead of her.  
  
She wouldn’t let Roy, or Yancy and Li-Ling, down.


End file.
